Textile interliner fabric for garments and method of making the same



Patented July 21, 1953 TEXTILE INTERLINER FABRIC FOR GAR- MEN'rs AND METHOD or MAKING THE I SAME RobertH, Gillespie, Walpole, Mass, assignor to The Kendall Company, Boston, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts N Drawing. Application February 14, 1950, 1

' Serial No. 144,203

The'present invention relates to coated. fabrics and more particularly to an interliner fabric,

fr Claims. (01. 117-161) known; for example, there have been on the market for many years mens shirts with attached collars containing a resin-coated interliner fabric to provide a collar which is easy to iron and which does not require starching when laundered and yet remains free from wrinkles when worn.

Notwithstanding the obviously great advanor to bleed obj ct e bl hrough the facing-ma:

terial, at these temperatures or at ironing temperatures. Otherwise, the stiffness will change with each ironing and/or thecollar will be discolored or disfigured. In addition, the collar, both interliner and facing united thereto, should be porous and permeable to perspiration and to the liquids employed in laundering.

It is an object of my invention to provide an apparel interliner material of the character indicated which will satisfy all of the foregoing requirements. Another object of the invention is to provide, an interliner material which will provide wrinkle-resistant collars and the like having an initial desirable softness and flexibility tages of a collar of this character, such collars as and retaining this desirable quality substantially the prior art has heretofore been able to prounchanged throughout their useful life. A furvide have not been wholly satisfactory. One of ther object of the invention is to provide such the worst defects of such collars is their initial interliner material yielding garments which are stiffness and boardiness. Another serious defect comfortable to wear and are porous and peris the substantial change is flexibility which 00- meable to perspiration and to washing liquids. curs upon repeated laundering, so that the cus- It is a further object of this invention to pro tomer who has selected a shirt in the store on vide an interlinermaterial, which, when fused the basis of the hand and feel of the collar soon to a facing fabric, will providea laminate that finds that the collar has become too stiff or too is substantially resistant, to ply separation on soft and is discouraged from again buying a repeated laundering. It is a further object of fused-collar shirt. this invention to provide an interliner material I have found that such a collar, and similarly that may be fused to. a facing fabric "onconcuffs, shirt bosoms and other semi-stiff articles ventional equipment but which after laundering of appearel, to be widely acceptable must satisfy does not bleed or strike through'at temperatures a large number of exacting and apparently irencounteredin laundering presses. reconcilable requirements. A collar, for example, In accordance with the invention, I coat a conmust not be objectionably stiff and boardy, and ventional interliner fabric, typically a 64 X 56 yet must be sufficiently firm not to wrinkle when. bleached cotton print cloth, with a mixture of worn. Also, the degreeof flexibility or stiffness separately-polymerized resins comprising a must remain substantially uniformthroughout liquid dispersion of a .high-molecular-weight the useful life of the garment, not withstanding vinyl chloride polymer (inclusive of copolymers) repeated laundering. and repeated ironing at term having an average molecular weight above about peratures of 250 to 35091. This provisionof a 20,000 and a combined vinylchloride content in desirable degree of initial flexibility and softness, excess of by weight of the polymer, in the and maintenance of this optimum value throughcontinuous phase of a solution of a low-molecu- Q the lift of the garment has until'now p lar-weight vinyl chloride polymer (inclusive of Sented an uIlSOlVable problem copolymers) having an average molecular weight interliner material, further, must b one between about 5,000 and 16,000 and a combined Which is p b of being fusedvtojfacing fabrics vinyl chloride content in excess of about 60% 1 at the temperatures d Pressures available 45 by Weight of the polymer. The molecular Weights the shirt manufacturer to form a permanent referred to herein are determined by Staudingers n r ne enough to re i plyp r in method (Ind. Eng. Chem., vol. 28, p. 1152, 1936). repeated cycles of wear and laundering and yet In addition to these polymers and the solvent, should not permit the adhesive to strike through my coating composition includes in the continu- 30 ous phase of the solution two types of plasticizers,

one a non-leachable plasticizer which is not removed from the garment to any significant extent by repeated laundering, and the other a smooth, continuous film containing the high and low molecular weight resin components and plasticizer in two distinct solid phases.

The combination of polymers and. the combination of plasticizers, which I employ, together with dispersion of the high-molecular-weight polymer in the low-nolecular-weight polymer, provide a composition which does not bleed during the operation of compositing the interliner with the facing fabric or in subsequent laundering and ironing, but which nevertheless can be fused by the shirt manufacturer, at the temperatures and pressures available with conventional equipment, to give an adhesive bond between the interliner and facing fabric which is adequately strong, in excess of 3 pounds per square inch, and is permanent in the sense that it endures, without ply separation, beyond the useful life of the garment.

During the fusing operation performed b the shirt manufacturer, the low molecular weight resin component of my coating composition which contains the preponderance of plasticizer, softens readil effecting an adhesive bond between the interliner and the facing fabric and concurrently having a fluxing action on the high molecular weight resin component. Before fusing, the softening point of the composition is close to that of the plasticized low molecular weight resin component. After fusing, the softening point of the composition is significantly increased, due, it is believed, to migration of plasticizer and low molecular weight resin into high molecular weight resin particles, forming a more homogeneous mixture. Consequently the interliner is less likely to bleed during commercial ironing operations during laundering, which frequently involve higher temperatures than the fusing process. This increase in softening temperature has been demonstrated experimentally by comparative tests of interliner fabric-facin fabric bond strengths with and without preheating of the inter-liner fabric before fusing. The pre-heated interliner showed a 40% reduction in bond strength, indicating that the pretreatment had significantly raised the softening temperature of the mass.

The resultant interliner, when incorporated in a collar or the like, produces a soft and flexible but wrinkle-resistant garment which softness and wrinkle resistance remain substantially the same throughout the lifetime of the garment. Collars formed from the resultant interliner have tip stiffness values (as hereinafter defined) of between 5 and 20 grams, as contrasted with values of the order of 30 grains characteristic of the prior art. In addition, and due chiefly, it is believed, to the removal of the leachable plasticizer during laundering, the resultant collar. has a marked permeability and moisture transferability. This permeability coupled with the retention of substantially the initial softness and flexibility is a marked con tribution in the art and is achieved by the inclusion of the two types of plasticizers.

The leachable plasticizer, in addition to its other functions, contributes to the initial flexibility and softness of the mater al, An 1?- crease in flexibility and softness resulting from loss of this plasticizer during early launderings the softenof the garment is, I elieve, offset by ing effect of laundering. The inclus leachable plasticizer lowers the sort-hin perature of the mass to-facilitate combining o the interliner and facing fabric. On the otLe hand, I believe, removal of the leacha'cle pla ticizer inhibitsbleeding during successive laundry pressings by increasing the softening temperature of the mass.

As an illustration of the presently preferred interliner material and process for its manufacture the following example is given.

Emample 160 lbs. of acetone, 31 lbs. of di 2-ethyl hexyl) phthalate (non-leachable plasticizer) 8 lbs. of ethyl phthalyl ethyl glycollate (reachable plasticizer)-are placed in a gal. tin-lined drum provided with a stirring paddle consisting of a stainless steel shaft and three-bladed propellers at the top, bottom and middle of the shaft. The stirrer is started and 27 lbs. of a 1ow-1nolecularweight copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate (Vinylite VYl-IH) wherein the vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate are combined in the proportions of about 87% vinyl chloride to 13% vinyl acetate, having an average molecular weight between about 9,900 and 12 ou are added with continued stirring. At the end of one hour all of the polymer is in solution and the mass is of a smooth consistency. With continued stirring, 50 parts of an emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride copolymer (Vinylite VYNV) average molecular weight about 24 1350 and containing vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate combined in the ratio of about 95:5, are added. The highmolecular-weight polymer is not dissolved but is slightly swollen and is dispersed in the lowmolecularweight copolymer acetone solution. Care is taken to prevent the temperature of the mass from rising above 95 F. At the end of one hourthe mass is a smooth dispersion in which the high-molecular-weight polymer is in the disperse phase. A 64 x 56 bleached starched cotton print cloth is coated with the dispersion, applying on each side 0.85 oz./sq. yd. by means of a single sharp-knife doctor blade, completely filling the interstices, followed by a second coat on each side of 1.25 oz./sq. yd. The total coating weight is s20 oz./sq. yd., approximately equally dividedbetween the two sides. Shirt collars were constructed by combining interliners cut from the resulting fabric with outer plies of a facing fab- 'ric of 136 x combed yarn broadcloth, using a Model 722 Prosperity fusing press operating at 90 lbs. per square inch steam pressure, and lbs. per square inch air pressure for a twenty second dwell period. These collars showed an initial tip stiifnessof 10 grams (as measured by the test hereinafter described) and a bond strength in excess of i pounds per inch. Sample collars were subjected to repeated wear and laundering tests and the tip stiffness measured at intervals. During the useful life of the collar no ply separation occurred and the tip stiffness remained between 8 and 12 grams.

As the high-molecular-weight polymer I may employ a vinyl chloride polymer or a copolymer of vinyl chloride with a polymerizable olefinic compound such as vinyl acetate, vinyl propionate, diethyl fumarate, acrylonitrile, vinylidine chloride, maleate esters such as dibutyl maleate and dimethyl maleate, and acrylate esters such as ethyl acrylate, methyl acrylate, propyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate. Such high-molecularweight vinyl chloride polymers are characterized.

by their insolubility and in commercial practice are formed by emulsion polymerization. In producing the products of this invention '1 have found that the ratio ofhigh-molecular-weight polymer to l-ow-molecular-weight polymer can be from 1:1 to 6:1 by weight. Typical commercial products contain these polymers in the ratio,

The lowemolecular-weight polymer may be a copolymer of vinyl chloride with any of'the olefinic compounds mentioned above. V

Instead of the acetone of. the example, I may i 'use any solvent or solvent mixture which will dissolve the low-'molecular-weight polymer but aromatic hydrocarbon. Iprefer to omit the hydrocarbon and use one or more alkyl ketones having the general formula wherein R1 and R2 are alkyl groups selected from the class consisting of methyl, ethyl, n-propyl,

Butyl phthalyl butyl glycollate (Santicizer 3-16) I Dibutoxy ethyl phthalate (Kronisol) V Dioctyl sebacate Dimethoxy ethyl phthalate (Methox) Diethoxy ethyl phthalate (Ethox) Ethyl phthalyl ethyl glycollate (Santicizer LEI-) Triethyleneglycol di-2-ethyl hexoate (Flexol. GO) I Diethyleneglycol .inonoethyl ether phthalate I incorporatea total plasticizer content be-- tween about 37% and 58%, by weight'of the .total polymercontent, of which plasticizer as much as r 70% can be of the leachable type. Typical prod-- nets of this invention contain from 5% to 60% leachable plasticizer.

Tip stifiness as used herein is'defined as the number of grams required to bend a definite'area of the collar through an angle of in the Saxl Stiffness Testing machine, Model No. 201, manu factured bySaxl Instrument (30., Providence.

R. I., set ata 3 cm. gap between the fabric-clamp edge and the fabric knife edge. The Saxl apparatus, a machine for testing the flexibility of knife edge on one side of the beam. The collar isopropyl and isobutyl, principally because of the highersolids content for a given viscosity which I have found that these liquids provide. Of this group, the preferred member is acetone.

In mixing the coating mass I employ sufiicien organic liquid to produce a coating medium of a fluidity that will allow easy application to the base fabric by conventional means. Typical compositions contain 30% to 75% by weight of acetone or its equivalent,

Instead of the stirring technique of the ex- 7 ample, any appropriate procedure known in the art may be employed for dispersing the highmolecular-weight polymer in the low-molecularweight copolymer, such as ball-milling, rollermilling, etc. 7

As the non-leachable plasticizer, .I prefer to zero.

the rests on the fabric knife-edge, The load scale is located on the other side of the balance beam. The collar is held in a clamp which can be rotated to measure the angle'through which the collar tip is bent. The collar area which extends past the clamp, i. e., the collar tip, is

that enclosed by atriangle, marked by a te.. plate;. which is 2%" along the clamp edge and 2%" and 2%"al0ng the other twosides. A test is made by determining the angle of bending re- 7 load is placed on'the'balance beam while in the arrested position.- The beam is lowered onto its knife edge and simultaneously the collar tip is bent as rapidly as possible to bring the balance The angle of bending required to zero the balance is quickly read and the fabric clamp di(2-ethyl hexyl) phthalatebecause, in addition to its resistance to removalby launderingit proof the plasticizer to be evaluated. In this test the films are washed in an agitated aqueous solution containing 0.2% by weight of a good grade of laundry soap and 0.2% by weight of sodium carbonate for a period of one hour at 140 F. For the purpose-of my invention, a weight loss of less than 5% of thefilm indicates that the plasticizer is satisfactory as a .non-leachable plasticizer.

Typical non-leachable plasticizers, in addition to di 2-ethylhexy1) phthalate are:

Tricresyl phosphate r Saturated polyester (Paraplex (71-50) Ethyl butyl phthalate Butyl benzyl phthalate (Santicizer 160) A weight loss greater than 5%, indicates that the plasticizer is'sa'tisfactory for use as a leachable plasticizer in my composition.

possible.

returned to a zero bending angle as rapidly as This procedure is repeated under the second selected load. In this manner, the collar tip is placed under stress the minimum length 1 of timeand resilience and relaxation effects are held to a minimum. The number of grams required to bend the collar tip through an angle of 30 is then found by plotting load versus bending angle for the two points determined, connecting the two points with a straigtht line and reading the number of grams from the graph at the junction of the drawn line with the 30 angle line.

Pigments, dyes, heat stabilizers, anti-blocking agents, etc., may be incorporated in the co i-- position as desired.

. Where the term bond strength is used in i this application, Iintend it to mean the force in pounds required to peel a facing ply from a strip of the laminate one inch wide.

Coating compositions-and methods of making them disclosed herein are claimed in my copending application Serial No. 276,439 filed March 13, 1952, as a continuation-in-part of my prior application Serial No. 144,204 filed February 14, 1950, now abandoned.

I claim:

1. An interliner fabric adapted to be bonded by heat and pressure to a face fabric to form washable wrinkle-resistant articles of apparel such as collars, cuiis, shirt bosoms and the like characterized by a desirable initial softness and flexibility persisting substantially throughout the life of the article of apparel, comprising a fabric coated with a mixture of separately-polymerized synthetic organic resins comprising 1 to 6 parts of a high-molecular-weight emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular Weight above about 20,000 and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess of 90% by weight of the polymer, dispersed as a distinct undissolved solid phase in 1 part of a lowmolecular-weight vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight between about 5000 and 16000 and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess oiabout 60% by weight of the polymer, and a plasticizer in an amount between about 37% and 58% by weight of the total polymer content.

2. An interliner fabric adapted to be bonded by heat and pressure to a face fabric to form washable wrinkle-resistant articles of apparel such as collars, cuffs, shirt bosoms and the like characterized by a desirable initial softness and flexibility persisting substantially throughout the life of the article of apparel, comprising a fabric coated with a mixture of separately-polymerized synthetic organic resins comprising 1 part of a low-molecular-weight vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight between about 5000 and 16000 and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess of about 60% by weight of the polymer, having dispersed therein as a distinct undissolved solid phase 1 to 6 parts of a relatively high-molecular-weight emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight above about 20,000 and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess of 90% by weight of the polymer and between about 37% and 58% of the weight of said polymers of plasticizer of which less than 70% is a plasticizer leachable in an aqueous soap solution, and the balance is a plasticizer non-leachable in an aqueous soap solution.

3. In the process of manufacturing a multiple ply article of apparel such as collars, cuifs and shirt bosoms wherein an interliner fabric is coated with an adhesive and subsequently composited to a face fabric by heat and pressure, the improvement which comprises coating said interliner fabric with a mixture of separatelypolymerize-d resins constituting a liquid coating composition comprising a distinct undissolved solid disperse phase of 1 to 6 parts by weight of a finely-divided emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight above 20,000, and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess of 90% by weightof the polymer, in a continuous phase of a solution of 1 part of 'a vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight between 5,000 and 16,000 and a combined vinyl chloride, content in excess of about 60% by Weight of the polymer, said continuous phase containing a plasticizer in an amount between about 37% and 58% by weight of the total polymer content of which less than about is a plasticizer leachable in an aqueous soap solution, and the balance is a plasticizer non-leachable in an aqueous soap solution, and removing the solvent from said coating by evaporation. I

4. In the process of manufacturing a multiple ply article of apparel such as collars, cuffs and shirt bosorns wherein an interliner fabric is coated with an adhesive and subsequently composited to a face fabric by heat and pressure, the

improvement which comprises coating said interliner fabric with a mixture of separatelypolymerized resins constitutinga'liquid coating composition comprising a distinct undissolved solid disperse phase of 1 to 6 parts by weight of a finely-divided emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight above 20,000 and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess of by Weight of the polymer, in a continuous phase of a solution of 1 part of a vinyl chloride polymer having an average molecular weight between 5,000 and 16,000 and a combined vinyl chloride content in excess of about 60% by weight of the polymer, in a solvent composed of at least one alkyl ketene having the formula wherein R1 and R2 are alkyl groups selected from the class consisting of methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl and isobutyl, said continuous phase containing a plasticizer in an amount between about 37% and 58% by weight of the total polymer content of which less than about 70% is a plasticizer leachable in an aqueous soapsolution, and the balance is a plasticizer non-leaehable in an aqueous soap solution, and removing the solvent from said coating by evaporation.

5. The process according to claim 4 in which the solvent is acetone.

,6. An interliner fabric according to claim 1 in which the high molecular-weight emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride polymer consists of polyvinyl chloride.

7. An interliner fabric according to claim 1 in which the high molecular-weight emulsion-polymerized vinyl chloride polymer is a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate in the ratio of about :5, and the low molecular-weight vinyl chloride polymer is a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate in the ratio of about 87:13.

' ROBERT H. GILLESPIE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES manure all 

1. AN INTERLINER FABRIC ADAPTED TO BE BONDED BY HEAT AND PRESSURE TO A FACE FABRIC TO FORM WASHABLE WRINKLE-RESISTANT ARTICLES OF APPAREL SUCH AS COLLARS, CUFFS, SHIRT BOSOMS AND THE LIKE CHARACTERIZED BY A DESIRABLE INITIAL SOFTNESS AND FLEXIBILITY PERSISTING SUBSTANTIALLY THROUGHOUT THE LIFE OF THE ARTICLE OF APPAREL, COMPRISING A FABRIC COATED WITH A MIXTURE OF SEPARATELY-POLYMERIZED SYNTHETIC ORGANIC RESINS COMPRISING 1 TO 6 PARTS OF A HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT EMULSION-POLYMERIZED VINYL CHLORIDE POLYMER HAVING AN AVERAGE MOLECULAR WEIGHT ABOVE ABOUT 20,000 AND A COMBINED VINYL CHLORIDE CONTENT IN EXCESS OF 90% BYTINCT WEIGHT OF THE POLYMER, DISPERSED AS A DISTINCT UNDISSOLVED SOLID PHASE IN 1 PART OF A LOWMOLECULAR-WEIGHT VINYL CHLORIDE POLYMER HAVING AN AVERAGE MOLECULAR WEIGHT BETWEEN ABOUT 5000 AND 16000 AND A COMBINED VINYL CHLORIDE CONTENT IN EXCESS OF ABOUT 60% BY WEIGHT OF THE POLYMER, AND A PLASTICIZER IN AN AMOUNT BETWEEN ABOUT 37% AND 58% BY WEIGHT OF THE TOTAL POLYMER CONTENT. 